Panos Panay: there’s no such thing as a Surface Pro 5

This week saw Microsoft reveal its Surface Laptop, alongside its Windows 10 S operating system, aimed at students. Shortly after, Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Devices, took to an interview with CNET, in which he was quizzed on the rumored ‘Surface Pro 5’.

During the interview, Panay was asked if a fifth-generation Surface Pro is on the way soon, to which he said “there’s no such thing as a Pro 5,” while also stating that they will only release a Surface pro 5 when it is “meaningful and the change is right,” implying that now is not the time for Surface Pro 5, after saying that he’s certain “that the people using a Pro 4 have a product that’s going to be competitive for five years.”

Explaining what would cause Microsoft to bring a Surface Pro 5 to market, Panay gave the following response:

Meaningful change isn’t necessarily a hardware change, which is what a lot of people look for. They’re like, ‘Where’s the latest processor?’ That’s not what I mean. I’m looking for an experiential change that makes a huge difference in product line.

As examples, Panay explained that significantly reduced weight or large increases in battery life would make a Surface Pro 5 worthwhile, whereas processor upgrades and such are incremental updates to the current-gen hardware.

With Panay’s comments in mind, it seems unlikely that we’ll see a Surface Pro 5 reveal at Build this year or at the upcoming May 23rd event.

Were you hoping for a Surface Pro 5 or do you prefer they make minor upgrades to the current-gen Surface devices?